In the history of the world, China has always been a country with a large population. As early as the pre-Qin era, the Central Plains had a population of tens of millions. In the past two thousand years, the number of Chinese population has risen one after another, and has changed with the change of dynasties until the end of the Ming Dynasty. However, in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, the war swept across China and caused a sharp decline in population. The population in the early Qing dynasties was less than 100 million, so why did it soar to 400 million in just two hundred years?
1. Qing dynasty political situation
After the establishment of the Qing dynasty, although there were wars, most of them were located in the border areas. The powerful Three Feudatories Rebellion in the Kangxi dynasty was also affected by the economic backward southwest provinces. The economically prosperous and populous Jiangnan region was not greatly affected. It can be said that from the early Qing Dynasty to the Daoguang period, the domestic political situation was relatively stable, especially the " Kangxi and Qianlong Prosperity " that lasted for a hundred years provided a superior external environment for the nourishment of the population.
2. stakes into the acres . Never add taxes
0 The population in the early Qing Dynasty was much smaller than the population counted at the end of the Ming Dynasty. Not all these people died. A large part of the household registration was hidden, because one of the national taxes is stake tax , which is very unfavorable to population growth or rule. There may even be cases where the poor cannot pay taxes and drown in newborns.
In 1712, the Qing court used the number of people in the fifty years of the Kangxi reign as a fixed number of taxes. From then on, "breeding people and never adding taxes". During the Yongzheng period, it promulgated a new policy of "spreading people into a mu", directly allocating the tax on land taxes. The capitation tax that lasted for thousands of years in the Central Plains was abolished. From then on, the people's children were no longer restricted, which greatly benefited the population growth, and the once hidden population was counted.
3. Restoration of social productivity and improvement of agricultural technology
After the establishment of the Qing Dynasty, it attached great importance to the development of agriculture, especially in the recovery of productivity, many measures and policies were issued, such as the construction of water conservancy, border land reclamation, etc., which made the land utilization rate much higher than that of the previous dynasty, and even reached the level of "no surplus land", especially some remote provinces were also developed.
Rice introduced by during the Song and Yuan dynasties was already planted in various parts of the south, and by the Qing dynasty, it had been promoted nationwide. Compared with the traditional crop wheat, rice yield is twice as high as that of wheat, and the calories it contains even five times that of wheat. In addition, with the improvement of agricultural technology, the total grain output of the Qing Dynasty was more than twice that of the Ming Dynasty, which provided enough physical substances for the increased population.
4. Introduction and promotion of new crops
With the advent of the Age of Discovery, various high-yield crops have also been introduced to China, especially sweet potatoes, potatoes and corn. They were introduced since the late Ming Dynasty and slowly promoted during the Qing Dynasty. These three crops are high-yield starch food . After large-scale promotion, they can ensure the food and clothing of ordinary people. This is a factor that cannot be ignored.
In addition, compared with the Ming Dynasty, the global climate began to warm during the Qing Dynasty, which was also very conducive to agricultural development, social stability and population growth.
summary
It can be seen that the rapid increase in the population of the Qing Dynasty is not a single reason to explain it. There are both the wise and wise rulers of the Qing emperors, and the global climate warming. The promotion of new high-yield crops cannot be ignored. In addition, the promulgation of new tax policies in the Qing Dynasty, which are conducive to population growth.
